LEN SUZIO: It's a mad, mad world in Hartford

Published 12:00 am, Thursday, July 5, 2012

Those words, spoken by Alice in "Alice in Wonderland", have taken on a whole new meaning for me.

I have been a Connecticut state senator for 16 months. I have come to find out that inside the State Capitol is a magical world - a Wonderland rarely visited by reality or common sense.

How else would one explain the zany legislation, proposals and procedures we have seen from our Democrat-controlled state legislature and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's office during that span of time?

Consider:

Paying the $1,000-an-inch tab for an enchanted busway between New Britain and Hartford.

Passing an oh-so-soft-on-crime bill which allows violent killers, rapists and child predators to get out of jail years before they should be released.

Crafting a "deal" with state unions which hinged on phony savings initiatives such as the Amazing $180 Million State Employee Suggestion Box.

Rubber stamping the "Show Me The Money" Jackson Labs economic development deal in which taxpayers will shell out a mere $1 million for each job it creates.

Coming within an eyelash of borrowing $300,000 of your money and sending it to the New Haven-based headquarters for the Connecticut Communist Party and People's World newspaper.

Increasing state government spending by $1 billion over two years while giving taxpayers the largest tax hike in Connecticut's history.

If I told you 16 months ago that all this was in your future, would you have believed me?

One thing I have learned during my brief service in Hartford is that many legislative proposals pass or fail by a small margin in the state senate. There are a number of common sense legislators at the State Capitol. Things would be very different - and much improved - if we had a few more of them.

In the early morning on June 13 during the legislature's special session, I shook my head as I watched Democrat senators vote "yes" on a massive 469-page, six-inch thick bill. I knew they had not read it. They had taken former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's advice to heart: Pass the bill first and then see what's in it.

As I walked about the State Capitol that evening, I kept expecting to see the perpetually grinning Cheshire Cat whenever I turned a corner. That memorable "Alice in Wonderland" character effectively summed up the current powers-that-be in Hartford when he informed Alice, "We're all mad here."